The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is more of a family event than most of the other festivals veteran storyteller Donald Davis visits. This year the festival is also focused on individual family stories, offering a classic Norman Rockwell print.

And he should know, he's told stories professionally for years and been on the schedule at the Timpanogos Festival since its 1990 origin.

He's featured at more than 30 festivals across the United States each year.

"They're all wonderful," Davis told the Deseret News in a recent telephone interview. "But every one is different. The Timpanogos Festival has the most thorough family audiences, more than anywhere."

Davis said because the festival is located close to its audience, it's probably easier for families to get to the events than festivals that require lengthy travel.

In other areas of the nation, attendees tend to leave the children at home. Here, even the babies are brought along (and eventually they learn to listen, too, Davis said).

To mark the emphasis festival organizers put on families, this year, a classic Norman Rockwell print is being offered: The Saturday Evening Post cover illustration of "Family Tree."

Festival founder Karen Ashton has made special arrangements for a limited number of prints to be available to festival patrons. (Ashton will also be telling stories as part of the "Shivers in the Night" event Friday evening.)

"One of our major goals is to inspire family storytelling," Ashton said. "By that, we mean fathers telling children stories of life, and grandmothers sharing what it was like to grow up years ago.

"That's at the heart of our festival. We watch entertainers on stage tell stories, but the most important stories we hear are from around the kitchen table and at the foot of the bed.

"What we really want is for families to share stories with each other in the car all the way home," she said.

There are activities and events throughout the popular festival that are well suited for families and designed to stimulate families to start seeking out and telling their own stories.

The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival is very strongly vetted with an eye to values and wholesome tales, Davis said. "The storytellers are known entities."

Davis said the bluegrass music and artwork and puppetry shows are also something not every festival includes.

"Here, there's always something going on," he said.

Youth storytellers who have won storytelling contests in their classrooms, schools and regions are a unique feature at the Timpanogos Festival as well.

"I just love it," Davis said. "That's not a given at every festival."

Davis said as more people participate in storytelling and become festival fans, more are becoming aware that their family stories need to be told.

In the Utah area, genealogical research is just one step in the process, Davis said. Understanding the value of personal stories is critical.

"We're getting it more and more," he said. "We're realizing that our stories are our identity. If you don't know your family, you don't know who you are."

Davis said although he'd told stories for years, he's not even close to running short of material. As he teaches others to tell their stories, he remembers more details from his childhood in the Appalachian Mountains.

Sharon Haddock is a former full-time writer and editor for The Deseret News. She currently does freelance writing from her home in American Fork where she lives with her fellow journalist husband Marc Haddock. They have 12 more ..